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Well, of course. Did you think that he was going to use an alphorn? Those things take up too much room in a sleigh.
The tune becomes more recognizable about halfway through the video.
-via View from North Central Idaho
There’s little information available at the Japanese-language website about this model. But from the pictures, it’s clear that this is a precise model of the Nagant M1895 revolver, a handgun produced in vast numbers by Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union. Other pictures at the link show that it’s articulated at several joints and can be loaded with wooden cartridges.
Link (Google Translate) -via The Firearms Blog
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Competitive shooting champion Rico Gonzalez Papa owns this magnificent modified handgun. He calls it the “Modified Megatron.” I doubt that it transforms into something more awesome than its current form, for such a thing is not possible.
Link -via Sharp as a Marble | Photo: Rico Gonzalez Papa
Special thanks to Paul Erhardt for helping me find information about this photo.
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Calguns forum user mossy loves the Portal video game franchise, so he had these custom grips made for his 1911 handguns. They’re made of walnut wood, mother of pearl, brass, and silver. The text reads “The cake is a lie.” If the reference is unfamiliar, the always handy Know Your Meme will bring you up to speed.
Link -via Everyday, No Days Off
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Two years ago, I posted about the Apache, an unusual weapon consisting of a folding knife, handgun, and knuckleduster made in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. This weapon appears to be an earlier — or at least more primitive — version of that concept. It’s a knife with a single-shot percussion pistol. There’s a crown marked into the steel, but otherwise, its origin is a mystery.
Link -via The Firearms Blog | Photo: Tortuga Trading
Destin of Smarter Every Day wanted to find out what would happen if he fired handguns underwater. He rigged a revolver and a semi-automatic pistol to fire inside water-filled tanks and recorded the results in slow motion.
The actual shooting starts about two minutes into the video. After firing off two rounds, Destin provides a brief physics lesson to explain what you’re seeing take place. -via The Firearms Blog
Imagine that you’re a jailer in the Nineteenth Century. You have to open an occupied cell, perhaps to transfer a prisoner or deliver a meal. To open the cell, you need your hands free. But that would leave you unarmed. The solution is a key gun: a gadget that opens the cell while the jailer remains armed. You can view five more examples at the link. Link -via Gizmodo | Photo: David Galbraith
This is an old M1911 handgun turned into a gate latch! Richard Mann spotted it at Gunsite, a private marksmanship school in Arizona.
Link via Everyday, No Days Off
What is this thing? I’m having trouble tracking down an authoritative source (or even the origin of this photograph), but here’s what’s written on the sign:
This unusual item was captured by US forces during the Pacific Campaigns of World War II. It consists of a pistol known as the 7mm “Baby Nambu” and a samurai sword blade. This item was not a standard Japanese Army item and it is believed that the owner had it fabricated on his own initiative. It is further believed that it was intended to be used in frontal-type assaults.
Well, it’s not a bad idea. But it has one obvious flaw: no place to mount a scope. I mean, really, who wants to go into battle with a sword pistol with only iron sights?
via MArooned
Here’s one early solution to the problem of limited magazine capacity. Between 1859 and 1862, a French inventor named Jarre patented several so-called harmonica pistols. As often as the user needed a fresh round, s/he could just push the magazine laterally. The pinfire example pictured above could hold nine 9mm cartridges.
Link via The Firearm Blog (which has pictures of other early high-capacity firearms) | Image: Rock Island Auction Company
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Unlike their American counterparts, Soviet cosmonauts went into space armed. Specifically, they carried the TP-82, pictured above. It had three barrels, the top two which fired approximately 40 gauge shotgun rounds. The lower barrel was chambered for the 5.45x39mm rifle round. If that didn’t do the job, there was a machete built into the stock — just in case….
Why did the cosmonauts carry this gun? It wasn’t to fight off aliens, but protect themselves from human threats if they landed in unfriendly territory at the end of their missions.
This gun was used until 2006, when it was replaced with a standard semi-automatic handgun.
Link | Image: mpopeneker
In the past, we’ve looked at somewhat fanciful efforts to improve the ammunition capacity of revolvers, including the use of feeding chains, superimposed loads, and stacked chambers. There’s not much information available about this solution except that it’s a single-action .38 that can fire 24 rounds.
Link via The Firearm Blog | Photo: Drefizzle
This unique revolver invented by John Walch in 1859. It has two triggers and two hammers to fire two rounds that were loaded into each chamber. James R. Rummel explains how it works:
The secret to the extra firepower is what is known as “superimposed loads”. Basically, the chambers are loaded with a powder charge with a bullet sitting on top, as is normal. Then another powder charge and bullet is loaded on top of the first.
The reason this doesn’t lead to an exploded gun and missing fingers is due to the unique ignition system. There are two percussion caps for every cylinder.
The gun is equipped with two hammers, and two triggers. Both hammers are cocked at the same time, but only the right-handed trigger is squeezed to set off the first shot. Then the left-hand trigger is squeezed, the left-hand hammer drops, and the second bullet goes flying. Cocking the hammers again will cause the cylinder to revolve as per normal.
Percussion caps are supposed to create a spark to set off the powder. Notice the ring of nipples to the outside of the cylinder? Those are the caps that are set off by the right-hand hammer, the hammer you are supposed to squeeze first. They don’t have a hole which goes directly into the back of the chamber, but instead channels the spark down a little tunnel. After about an inch, the tunnel makes a left hand turn and finally emerges into the chamber.
The hope is that the extra inch traveled will mean that the spark from the right-hand trigger will set off the powder charge in front, which will send the first bullet flying down the barrel while leaving the second bullet and powder charge untouched. The left-hand trigger will cause the left-hand hammer to drop, which will impact on the inner percussion cap, and hopefully cause the second charge to ignite.
Link | Photos: Hell in a Handbasket
Previously: 20-Shot Revolver
This is a unique single-action revolver patented by Henry S. Josselyn in 1866. Information on this gun is scarce, but it would appear to fire twenty rounds without reloading simply by cycling a new round on the flexible chain after each discharge. At least one example of this firearm is retained by the Smithsonian Institution.
Link | Patent Information | Photo: American Heritage Magazine
Michael, the cousin of YouTube user grtwhthunter4, was born without arms. Watch him shoot and reload a 1911 .45 ACP handgun using only his feet.
via The Firearm Blog
The Tampa-based artist known as P$ynner painted this handgun. It’s a Bersa Thunder .380 caliber semi-automatic.
via The Breda Fallacy | Artist’s Website
James R. Rummel of Hell in a Handbasket has a post about early handgun bayonets. The Elgin Pistol Cutlass (above) was a single-shot pistol available in the U.S. in various calibers starting in the 1830s. It’s basically a built-in machete that served to clear away brush while tramping out in the wilderness:
Instead the guns were designed to be used as brush cutters in dangerous territory. The heavy knife would clear away the jungle, while the pistol would be ready if enraged animals or hostile natives suddenly sprang from the bracken.
At the link, you can view pictures of a bayonet that could be fitted onto World War I-era British revolvers.
Link | Photo: American Firearms
James Rummel has pictures and descriptions of five handguns that were very innovative designs, but turned out to be useless in real life. These include the Henrion, Dassy & Heuschen twenty-shot revolver, manufactured in France between 1921 and 1928.
